Fake news story about Radiohead fans mistaking guitar tuning for new song goes viral

A fake news story about Radiohead fans mistaking the band tuning their guitars during their Glastonbury headline set for a new song has gone viral online.

Friday night (June 23) saw the group take to the festival’s main Pyramid stage to headline Glastonbury for the third time. NMEdescribed the set as “an ‘OK Computer’-filled celebration” as Radiohead paid homage to their crowning record, which turns 20 this year. The full set is streaming via BBC iPlayer – watch it back here

A screenshot of what appears to be a BBC News article with the headline “Radiohead crowd left red-faced after applauding three minute guitar tuning, mistaking it for new song” has been widely shared on social media.

The fake news story claims that Radiohead fans labelled the band tuning their instruments as their “best work since OK Computer”, quoting one fan as allegedly saying the ‘new song’ sounded “minimalist, but also complex, emotionally raw, but still able to push the boundaries of what music can be”.

Radiohead opened their Glastonbury headline set with ‘Daydreaming’ from last year’s album ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’, then performing ‘Lucky’ as their set’s second song. The band sporadically play the song live and its performance seemed to mark the 20th anniversary of ‘OK Computer’. The band then played ‘Ful Stop’ followed by another ‘OK Computer’ track, ‘Airbag’. Later, they played ‘Exit Music (for a Film)’ and, further into their set, ‘Let Down’, ‘Paranoid Android’ and ‘No Surprises’. They finished with ‘Karma Police’, with fans chanting the song’s refrain as Radiohead left the stage. Check out the full setlist here.

Somewhat surprisingly, the band also performed ‘Creep’ for the Glastonbury crowd, despite the huge single often being left off sets. One Twitter user wrote: “Not only are Radiohead playing ‘Creep’, but it actually looks like they practiced it beforehand”. Another added that frontman Thom Yorke was “coming to terms” with the song “being a banger”.

During the set, Thom Yorke stopped to thank festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, and share his thoughts on the festival. “To the Eavises, thanks for having us at your lovely farm today,” he said. “What a fucking great place this is. Ain’t nothing else like it on earth.”